Ty Lawson and the terrible 2s (Nuggets guard has a shooting problem)

Ty Lawson knocks the Knicks’ Jason Kidd into New York’s bench on Sunday.

Ty Lawson does most of his scoring from the paint (layups) and from 3 (3s). All of this is nice.

But his jump-shooting has been abysmal, and it showed up in Sunday’s second half when against the Knicks in New York, as coach George Karl pointed out that:

“Jason Kidd was gaping him, giving him jump shots, and Ty never made that jump shot that gave him the confidence to take another one and another one. When guys are going to give him a 15-footer wide open, he’s got to start making them.”

Defenses are discovering that if they give him space to shoot the mid-range jumper, he will often miss the mid-range jumper. It’s bad. Lawson shoots 14.3 percent on shots 10-14 feet, 30.2 percent on 15-19 and 29.7 on 20-24.

Overall on Lawson, his coach said: “We don’t need him to ever shut down being aggressive. We need him aggressive on every touch he has, every possession, every opportunity. He should be trying to put a triple-double on the board and developing the game to the point where you can’t gap him and all you can do is hope he has a bad night.”

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.